Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-10-06


| darkness. There n the bow sat old I'm
slopogaas, like Pleasure in the poem (AIr
Allan Quartermain misquotes-Pie Pleasure
sat at the helm.-Editor.) watchful and
untiring, the pole ready to his hand; and
behind in the shadow 1 could just make
out the form of Good, peering forward al
| the ray of light in order to make out how
to steer with the paddle that he held, and
now and again dipped in the water
"Well, well" thought /, s'you have come
| in search of adventures, Allan my boy, and
you have certainly got them. At your
time of life. too! you ought to be ashamed
OF yourself; but somehow you arn't, anu,
awful as it all is, perhaps you will pull
through after all; and if you don't, why
you can't help it, you seel And, when al's
said and done, an underground river will
make very appropriate burying-place."
At first, however, | am bound to say that
the strain upon the nerves was very great.
Lit is trying to the coolest and most expert
enced person not to know from one hour
60 another if he has five minutes more to
live, but there Is nothing in this world that
| one cannot get accustomed to, and in time
we began to get accustomed even to that.
And, after all, our anxiety, though no
doubt natural, was, strictly speaking, IL
logical seeing that we never know what's
going to happen to us the next minute.
even When we SIT In wei drained house
with two policemen patrolling under the
window-nor how long we have to live. 1t
is all arranged for us, my sons, so what is
the use of bothering?
1t was nearly midday when we made our
| dive into darkness, and we had set our
watch Good and Umslopogaas) at two,
having agreed that it should be of a dura-
ton of five hours. At seven o'clock, ac-
cordingly, Sir Henry and / went on, Sir
Henry at the bow and [ at the stern, and
the other two lay down and went to sleep.
For three hours all went well; Sir Henry
only found it necessary to once prsh us off
from the side, and [ noticed that but little
steering was required to keep us straight.
as the Violent current did all that was
needed, though occasionally the canoe
showed a tendency, which had to be guard
ed against, to veer and travel broadside on.
What struck me as the most curious thing
about this wonderful river was: how did
the air keep fresh? 1t was muggy and
thick, no doubt, but still not sufficiently
SO to render it bad or even remarkably UNI
pleasant. The only explanation that can
suggest is that the water of the lake had
sufficient air in it to keep the atmosphere
of the tunnel from absolute stagnation,
this air being given out as it proceeded on
its headlong way. OF course [ only give
this solution of the mystery for what it is
worth, which, perhaps, is not much.
When [ had been for three hours or so at
the wheel, | began to notice q decided
change in the temperature, which was get
ting warmer. At first [ took no notice of
it; but when, at the expiration of another
half-hOur, [ found that it was getting hot
ter and hotter, | called to Sir Henry and
asked him if he noticed it, or if it was only
my imagination. "Notice it, he answered
Il should think sol am in sort of Turk
ish BATH" Just about then the others
woke up gasping, and were obliged to be-
gin to discard their clothes. Here UNI
slopogaas had the advantage, for he did
not wear any to speak of except moocha.
Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at
last we could scarcely breathe, and the
perspiration poured out of u.s. Half an
hour more, and though we were all now
stark naked, we could hardly bear it. The
place was like an antechamber of the in
fernal regions proper. dipped my hand
with q cry; it was nearly boiling We con-
suited a little Thermometer we had-the
mercury stood at 123 From the surface
of the water rose dense cloud of steam.
Alphonse groaned out that we were already
in purgatory; which indeed we were,
though not in the sense that he meant it.
Sir Henry suggested that we must be pass
ing near the seat of some underground
o1oa r
especially in the light of what subsequent
~ occurred, that he was right. Our suf-
ferings for some time after this really pass
my powers of description. We no longer
perspired, for all the perspiration had been
sweated out of US. We simply lay in the
bottom of the boat, which we were now
physically incapable of directing, feeling
like hot embers, aud, l fancy, undergoing
very much the same sensation that the
poor fish do when they are dying on land;
namely that of slow suffocation. Our
skins began to crack, and the blood to
throb in our heads like the beating of a
steam-engine.
This had been going on for some time,
when suddenly the river turned a little,
and heard Sir Henry call out from the
bow in a hOarSe, startled voice, ana looking
up, SaW Il mOSU WONDERFUL anu AWFUL
thing. About half a mile ahead of us, and
a little to the left of the center of the stream
which we could now see was about ninety
feet broad-a huge pillar-like jet of almost
white flame rose from the surface of the
water and sprang fifty feet into the air,
when it struck the roof and spread out
some forty feet in diameter, falling back
in curved sheets of fire shaped like the
petals of a full-blown rose. Indeed, this
awful gas-je resembled nothing so much
as great flaming flower rising out of the
black water. Below was the straight stalk,
a foot Or more thick, and above the dread
full bloom. And as for the fearfulness of
it, aud its fierce and awsome beauty, who
can describe it? Certainly / cannot. Al
though we were now some five hundred
yards away, it, Notwithstanding the steam,
lit mp the whole cavern as clear as day, and
we could see that the ROOF was here about
forty feet above US, and washed perfectly
smooth with water. The rock was black,
and here and there / could make out long
shining lines of ore running through it like
great veins, but of what metal they were I
know not.
On we rushed toward this pillar of fire,